City gets lots of input on proposed linear park

Published: Thursday, May 1, 2014 at 10:10 p.m.

Last Modified: Thursday, May 1, 2014 at 10:10 p.m.

The city of Ocala's plans to build a linear park along Southeast Osceola Avenue met some opposition from stakeholders along the roadway at a public meeting Thursday, but the city assured them that the plans are conceptual at this point and their concerns would be considered in any plans going forward.

"Nothing is a done deal at this point," Peter Lee, the city's chief planning official, told the roughly 40 people who attended the meeting to seek community input on the project. "The vision dates back to 2004 when we did the downtown master plan."

Lee said the master plan identified Osceola Avenue as a greenway for pedestrians and as way of crossing State Road 40 and joining the areas north and south of that roadway.

With the building of Citizen's Circle and improvements to Tuscawilla Park and the downtown square, the hope is to provide access to all those points and overcome the disconnections to allow for more events to take place, officials have said.

Toward that end, the city has applied for a $2.2 million grant from the Federal Railroad Administration, which has been approved but not yet awarded, to move the Florida Northern Railroad tracks toward the center of the roadway.

Conceptual plans show a fence on either side of the tracks, and areas for pedestrian and bicycle use on the two sides of the track, essentially closing the roadway from Southeast Third Street to Northeast Fifth Street.

Lee said the sketches people have seen that showed fences and raised beds were used for the purpose of explaining the concept but were not intended to be a finished product.

John "Row" Rogacki, associate director for IHMC, expressed some of the concerns that organization has. The proposed linear park runs right in front of IHMC, which is located in the former library building off East Silver Springs Boulevard and Osceola Avenue.

"We think if there's an extensive use of fence, this will become Ocala's version of the Berlin Wall," Rogacki said.

He said that while the proposed project may improve the north/south connectivity, it would impede the east/west movement.

"If we could resolve the fence issue, that's a big concern to us," Rogacki said. "The other issue is the aesthetics."

Rogacki said IHMC is a research institute working in areas of robotics, human-centered computing, cyber security and natural language processing and employs two of the world's top five experts in natural language processing.

IHMC competes with places like Austin, Texas; Boston, Seattle and Silicon Valley in California to attract talent. Restricting access to their front door would hurt recruiting efforts and also reduce the value of their property.

But Rogacki did agree that something needs to be done to improve Osceola Avenue, which is in disrepair.

Albert Peek, who is proposing to build a hotel on the former Chamber of Commerce lot across from IHMC, had concerns similar to Rogacki's. He was concerned about a rendering he had seen that had a raised bed for the railroad tracks with rocks and the fence. He also suggested the city look at the documents to see what responsibilities the railroad has for maintenance and improvements.

In addition, Peek expressed the desire to have a quiet zone where the railroad horns cannot be sounded, especially on weekends.

A number of suggestions were brought forth, many about possibly getting rid of the roadway.

Marc Mondell, the city's executive director of community development, said that may be very difficult to do and, if it was not possible, there needed to be another plan to improve Osceola Avenue.

One suggestion was to haul by tanker truck any oil that the train ordinarily would carry, and another was use the area as a rails-to-trails facility for hikers and pedestrians, which would bring more tourism to town.

Joe Niles said the rail spur is important to economic development in Silver Springs Shores and would be attractive to companies in need of that transport.

Bryce Peek said the track is near the end of its life. If improvements are made, he wondered if the speed of the trains using the tracks could be increased.

Mondell said the improvements would only be about eight blocks, not the entire length of the spur.

City Engineer Sean Lanier said the plans have not been done yet and the city would be the designer and control the purse strings.

Teresa Dunnam wondered about the impact of homeless and other "urban adventurers" on a linear park and was told that the city is working with the Salvation Army perhaps to move to another location.

Another concern was future development along the corridor and the belief that such development should be incorporated into any design. Others wanted to see if a dog park could be incorporated.

City staff said they would investigate the suggestions and conduct another, longer meeting on June 4, at a time and place to be determined.

<p>The city of Ocala's plans to build a linear park along Southeast Osceola Avenue met some opposition from stakeholders along the roadway at a public meeting Thursday, but the city assured them that the plans are conceptual at this point and their concerns would be considered in any plans going forward.</p><p>"Nothing is a done deal at this point," Peter Lee, the city's chief planning official, told the roughly 40 people who attended the meeting to seek community input on the project. "The vision dates back to 2004 when we did the downtown master plan."</p><p>Lee said the master plan identified Osceola Avenue as a greenway for pedestrians and as way of crossing State Road 40 and joining the areas north and south of that roadway.</p><p>With the building of Citizen's Circle and improvements to Tuscawilla Park and the downtown square, the hope is to provide access to all those points and overcome the disconnections to allow for more events to take place, officials have said.</p><p>Toward that end, the city has applied for a $2.2 million grant from the Federal Railroad Administration, which has been approved but not yet awarded, to move the Florida Northern Railroad tracks toward the center of the roadway.</p><p>Conceptual plans show a fence on either side of the tracks, and areas for pedestrian and bicycle use on the two sides of the track, essentially closing the roadway from Southeast Third Street to Northeast Fifth Street.</p><p>Lee said the sketches people have seen that showed fences and raised beds were used for the purpose of explaining the concept but were not intended to be a finished product.</p><p>John "Row" Rogacki, associate director for IHMC, expressed some of the concerns that organization has. The proposed linear park runs right in front of IHMC, which is located in the former library building off East Silver Springs Boulevard and Osceola Avenue.</p><p>"We think if there's an extensive use of fence, this will become Ocala's version of the Berlin Wall," Rogacki said.</p><p>He said that while the proposed project may improve the north/south connectivity, it would impede the east/west movement.</p><p>"If we could resolve the fence issue, that's a big concern to us," Rogacki said. "The other issue is the aesthetics."</p><p>Rogacki said IHMC is a research institute working in areas of robotics, human-centered computing, cyber security and natural language processing and employs two of the world's top five experts in natural language processing.</p><p>IHMC competes with places like Austin, Texas; Boston, Seattle and Silicon Valley in California to attract talent. Restricting access to their front door would hurt recruiting efforts and also reduce the value of their property.</p><p>But Rogacki did agree that something needs to be done to improve Osceola Avenue, which is in disrepair.</p><p>Albert Peek, who is proposing to build a hotel on the former Chamber of Commerce lot across from IHMC, had concerns similar to Rogacki's. He was concerned about a rendering he had seen that had a raised bed for the railroad tracks with rocks and the fence. He also suggested the city look at the documents to see what responsibilities the railroad has for maintenance and improvements.</p><p>In addition, Peek expressed the desire to have a quiet zone where the railroad horns cannot be sounded, especially on weekends.</p><p>A number of suggestions were brought forth, many about possibly getting rid of the roadway.</p><p>Marc Mondell, the city's executive director of community development, said that may be very difficult to do and, if it was not possible, there needed to be another plan to improve Osceola Avenue.</p><p>One suggestion was to haul by tanker truck any oil that the train ordinarily would carry, and another was use the area as a rails-to-trails facility for hikers and pedestrians, which would bring more tourism to town.</p><p>Joe Niles said the rail spur is important to economic development in Silver Springs Shores and would be attractive to companies in need of that transport.</p><p>Bryce Peek said the track is near the end of its life. If improvements are made, he wondered if the speed of the trains using the tracks could be increased.</p><p>Mondell said the improvements would only be about eight blocks, not the entire length of the spur.</p><p>City Engineer Sean Lanier said the plans have not been done yet and the city would be the designer and control the purse strings.</p><p>Teresa Dunnam wondered about the impact of homeless and other "urban adventurers" on a linear park and was told that the city is working with the Salvation Army perhaps to move to another location.</p><p>Another concern was future development along the corridor and the belief that such development should be incorporated into any design. Others wanted to see if a dog park could be incorporated.</p><p>City staff said they would investigate the suggestions and conduct another, longer meeting on June 4, at a time and place to be determined.</p><p><i>Contact Susan Latham Carr at 867-4156 or susan.carr@starbanner.com.</i></p>